I am writing to you from Mwangaza Jesuit Retreat Center in Nairobi, Kenya where I am an ‘intern’ directing two retreatants on a 8-Day Directed Retreat. I met each of them once a day, I also meet with my supervisor.

Mwangaza is Swahili for Light, an apporpiate name for a retreat center. It is set below the Ngong Hills on the former estate of Karen Blixen of the ‘Out of Africa’ fame. People come for all over Africa, many from Tanzania. Why is that? Mwangaza is unique in that in focuses on Ignatian Spirituality and Silence, not many, if any, places like this in East Africa.

I am directing two highly education men who are professors at local Catholic University. It has been a challenge and a joy to journey with them. It has given my an opportunity to learn more on how I can accompany Africans in a retreat setting in the future at the Lake House of Prayer.

We are at the half-way point of our retreat and already I see the fruit of Silence, Stillness, Reflection and Prayer: Peace, Tranquility, Renewed Relationship with God in Jesus. And yes, ‘Mwangaza’ in their eyes.

 

I’ve been told and have heard several times that Africans cannot do meditation. As someone who wants to share the Contemplative Tradition of the Church, this view is somewhat challenging. Somewhat because I have had plenty of opportunities to test the validity of this negative judgment during these 30yrs I have lived here.

Meditation, for me, is being totally Present in the Moment to what is happening within oneself and one’s outer environment. It is not mental exercise of concentration beyond thought. Meditation is being fully present and alive with one’s total Being of BodyMindSpirit. It has been my limited experience that the people here, when given the chance can do this, can do it well. My guess they have the natural skills beyond the rational mindset of the West.

Yesterday at our weekly Taamuli (Meditation) Group at the Lake House of Prayer we had our largest group of men, women, children, young and old. All together, the way Life is done here. I used a body relaxation exercise to help people check in with their bodies. Then we reflected on Scripture, afterwards a silent meditation of 20min. I am always impressed at the quality of the Stillness and Silence. After the session I wondered to myself, who is teaching who here?

 

When I signed the contract to the second phase (1st phase being the foundation and the water tank) of the building of the House of Prayer I told the contractor, before we signed the contract, that I would not have enough money to fulfill the obligations of the contract in the time frame we were putting into the contract. This is because of the cost-overruns of the foundation and basement (which we did not plan for).

The contractor understood and still agreed to sign. I would pay the balance of the amount when I get the money,  probably in Jan 2017. Our long history together of trust helped create this relational environment.

This reality has not stopped the work continuing at a very fast speed. So fast, that it looks like the building will be finished and ready to live in this June! I was thinking sometime at the end of this year or even Jan 2017. But no, THIS JUNE! This reality is just starting to hit me.

I don’t like carrying debts here in Tanzania, but it looks like I’ll start living in a new home soon, with a debt to be paid in the near future. A first for me after 30yrs of living in Africa. A humbling experience, usually, people have debts with me. Any yet, having this debt, while not good for my pocketbook, is good for my soul.

 

Yesterday we had our monthly building site meeting in which we evaluate the progress of the building and make plans for the future. Our first agenda is to walk through the entire site to see its progress, or lack thereof.

The Head Engineer of the company who comes from afar for our meeting recognized that the drainage pipes for all six of our toilets were not installed before we built the walls and poured the cement floor. This is what I call The BIG MISTAKE, a MISTAKE one seeks to avoid on a project like this.

There are always small mistakes and frustrations that are easily handled, sort of, but the BIG ONE, creates a lot more work and much frustration.

So now we have to tear apart our beautiful forming stone walls in six different places along with six sections of the floor to put in the toilet pipes. This will be done by hand as most of the work is.

Everyone is commenting how beautiful our building is. Yet beauty is only skin deep, especially if you know this beautiful building does not have a take away system to rid itself of human waste.

I celebrated Holy Week with the local Christian Community. I felt blessed by their faith and joy throughout the entire week.

Here at the building site we are on a short break for Easter. I am enjoying the quiet, sitting in the room of our new building that overlooks the lake.

The roof is almost completely on, next the detail work on the doors, locks, windows, sinks, sockets, etc.

The people like the building very much. That’s good, since it will be theirs for a long time.

I am pleased to see that the subject of ‘Msongo wa Mawazo” (Stress) is getting some press these days. “Msongo” is from the verb ‘kusonga’ (to gather to come close), “Mawazo” (thoughts), that is a coming together of a lot of thoughts in one’s mind.

Like many places in the world today, Tanzanians are experiencing much stress in their lives, especially people without a ‘safety net’ like millions of marginated people. Just the stress of finding enough food to eat for a day is more than enough to ‘gather many thoughts together’.

The forgotten people of society, the poor, handicapped, uneducated, underemployed, women do not have access to many stress reducing tools that the educated and economically well off do, one of the results of being forgotten. They don’t count.

The goal of the Lake House of Prayer is God but God has shown in Jesus Christ that God wants all peoples to live full lives in the God’s Kingdom. Here and Now. On this Earth. So, in the Silence, Simplicity and Solitude I hope we can create an atmosphere where the thoughts start to separate a bit and the space to experience God’s unconditional Love is there for our forgotten ones to be remembered.

Today at our Christian Meditation Group here I will give a teaching on ‘Msongo wa Mawazo’ to the forgotten ones. I pray God remembers us.

 

Next month Judy Walter, a Maryknoll Lay Missioner, will be joining me at the Lake House of Prayer. We will form a community of two (for now). Our main priority is, as a member of the Desert House of Prayer in Tucson, Arizona once said, ‘hold the Silence’. We hope through a regular prayer rhythm of Contemplation Silence, Reflection and Liturgies we can provide atmosphere of Silence and Simplicity for our guests who come here on retreat to Rest in the Lord.

Soon we will have enough furniture made for receiving guests at my house. So the signs are appearing that my many months of solitary silence, alone here are coming to an end. Being alone these past months has confirmed the vision of the need for Contemplative Silence. The challenge now is to see how this vision will unfold in Tanzania.